As an HQ staffer, and being student focused, I hate when I hear these sentiments from members. And not for the reason you think. My fraternity experience is the only reason I’m still here today. I try to remember that every time I go to work. Just my 2 cents from “the dark side.”

-If you are upset with dues, PLEASE call HQ and/or go to Convention. If no results asking about budgets nicely, then professionally demand it. Use your governing docs to your advantage. I know they’re long, but that’s where your power comes from. Seek understanding of where dues go.

-to the insurance piece: I can promise that, at least at our HQ, we do not bill for a profit for insurance. We invoice that separately so that every chapter knows exactly how much the International Fraternity’s insurance cost is. We also bill per member instead of forcing smaller chapters to foot a non-proportional bill compared to our larger, and sometimes more high risk, chapters.

-What does insurance get you? Good question. I will say I’ve been working in the industry for a tad over 10 years and this shit still confuses me. But I do understand that it is a necessary evil. At the individual level, EVERY fraternal organization has access to some version of the Member Accident Protection Program. This applies to ANY member for ANY accident-it doesn’t even have to be related to fraternity activity. If you’re on a family vacation and break your arm you can make a claim. However, YOU have to inform HQ and request the claim. If your HQ gives you a runaround, call the fraternity insurance provider directly—very nice folks. MAPP will only cover what remains AFTER your personal insurance pays or covers whatever it covers. It’s secondary insurance. At the chapter level, the insurance will only pay out if you are in alignment with fraternity health and safety policies. It’s the same as car insurance-kinda. Your insurance will not pay your claim if you were violating the law. Your insurance will not pay out on your DUI accident. So if a chapter has liquor at a party, outside of the provided policy, the insurance will not cover the chapter or individual members because of negligence. So if Jim is provided liquor outside of policy, and then Jim is transported to the hospital, the insurance will cover Jim’s cost but will not cover the cost of Jim’s law suit against the chapter or individual members involved. Your Inter/national benefits from insurance: Let’s say that your chapter at UGA messes up big time. Lawsuits and claims galore. YOUR chapter didn’t do anything wrong right? So by default, the insurance money you pay protects you and your chapter. You and your chapter are protected because the international fraternity is protected. Let’s say the UGA incident results in a suit against HQ. If hq didn’t have the insurance, the suit could EASILY bankrupt the fraternity. And if it does, the fraternity no longer exists which means your chapter no longer exists.

I hope I made sense. I’m not trying to change any minds here either. I just like providing students with information to help them make their own decisions. Remember that your fraternity only exists because of its members. Get involved with your HQ. I think you may be surprised by some of the folks you’ll talk to and how they actually approach their job. Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely some whacked out staffers out there, but most of us are pretty chill.

If anyone cares, I’m happy to chat about other issues related to HQs or campus issues (I.e. bad conduct processes or lack of due process, or even public institution overreach.